


Bonding Experience! [25/52]

by andrea_deer



Series: 52 aspec drabbles/ficlets of 2017 [25]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 52 aspec drabbles, Asexual Character, Asexual Derek Hale, Biromantic Asexual Derek, Coming Out, M/M, Pining, Pride
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-09 20:06:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12895734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andrea_deer/pseuds/andrea_deer
Summary: "I know I've told you, you don't need rainbow clothes but one could hope for something less depressingly black? Maybe a small sign of solidarity? If not, dare I say it, a tell regarding your own leanings?"25th of 52 aspec drabbles!





	Bonding Experience! [25/52]

**Author's Note:**

> Can be read as a sequel to [Don't Fix What's Not Broken](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12883920).

Sometimes Derek really missed living in his burned down house. Everything there, even the rooms that were almost untouched by the fire, smelled of smoke and ashes. Few people came into the house and when they did, they weren't exactly able to laze around, stay the whole day, throw their things around and forget taking making everything smell like them.

The next time Stiles was going to walk into the studio Derek would throw his hoodie right at his face.

He couldn't wait for the renovation of his house to be finished. There at least he could get out at any moment and run around the forest instead of staying in his apartment, trying to focus on his work and not burying his face in the soft, red material carelessly draped over the back of his couch.

How could anyone ever forget it? It was the brightest thing in the whole apartment!

"Oompf!" Stiles shouted muffledly in surprise before taking the hoodie off his face and looking at it quizzically, his face brightening almost immediately. "Oh, thanks! I was wondering where it wandered off too! But Scott refused to be my sniffing dog and help me find it. Really, what's even the point of having werewolf friends?"

Derek felt like he was in some sort of a game sometimes when he was interacting with Stiles. There was a joke or a question, or any invitation to a conversation and Derek's mind immediately came up with options _"a) snark at him, b) snarl at him, c) respond something witty"_ except there was time limit and Derek rarely managed to pick "c" or when he did it still came out as an "a".

Perhaps Derek was procrastinating too much on the essays for his online courses and played addictive games that messed up his perception. Regardless, his mind stayed blank for too long and Stiles already moved on, so used to having those conversations almost by himself.

"I have a proposition you can't decline for you!"

"I decline," Derek said immediately, only partly because he liked being contrary. Mostly because he knew Stiles for long enough to know he should be, for his own good.

"Har har," deadpanned Stiles and continued: "We should go for the Pride as a pack."

"What?" Derek blinked in surprise. That was not... what he thought this conversation could be about. And how did Stiles even know Derek could be part of the Pride if he just discovered it about himself recently and really he wasn't sure if it was...

"It's a bonding experience!" Stiles exclaimed. "Almost all of us, if not all, are going. Either as happily queer or happily supportive. But it's better if we go together."

"What's the difference?" Derek asked, honestly confused.

Sometimes he wondered if Stiles eyes hurt when he rolled them like that.

"It's a bonding experience!" Stiles repeated insistently. "You'd be showing the pack that you support them as their alpha!"

"That's stupid. And you need to stop using the excuse of me being a better alpha whenever you want me to do something."

Stiles grinned unrepentantly.

"I'll stop using it when it stops working," he promised and Derek glared at his smile, trying to stop his own mouth from twitching. "Also, unlike the Taco Bonding Experience, this is actually important. We're dumb, uncertain still-teens and we may say we're fine and confident, but we appreciate the support."

Derek's frown deepened. He was not the best at guiding the pack through the more... personal and emotional problems. He liked to think he wasn't the worst and he was sure he _was_ getting better. His therapy helped a lot and he had more to offer now, especially as the life-threatening situations became fewer and farther in between. 

He talked with Erica sometimes. He liked to think him and Boyd have an understanding. Lydia sometimes vented at him, though he doubted it had anything to do with his emotional skills. 

He talked a lot with Stiles who was handling the majority of emotional crises in the pack. They talked it through, Stiles talked it through and Derek listened and tried to help. And hearing about the problems through Stiles' point of view, with his helpful commentary made it easier for him to deal with it all.

He tried not to think about how they were leading the pack as partners. Their pack was not a usual one, the hierarchy was not exactly traditional. It wasn't worth the dull ache in Derek's chest to think how often he saw his parents sitting closely on the porch and talking about their pack just like he did with Stiles.

He focused on what Stiles just said and how it never came up before which was odd with Stiles, the only time he hesitated in sharing was when the things were more personal. He hadn't been dating anyone lately, but Derek just assumed...

"You don't feel comfortable with your sexuality in the pack?"

Stiles threw his hands in the air.

"Oh my god, Derek! I swear you're doing this on purpose!" he looked straight at Derek and started speaking slowly, making sure he spoke plain and clear: "I am perfectly comfortable, thank you very much. For once, and I know it might be shocking considering I'm the high goods and the main topic of all the gossip around despite being the only human around, but - _it's not about me_."

Derek rolled his eyes at the drama queen before him.

"I know!" Stiles exclaimed, gesticulating wildly. "Shocking! Now please focus. As far as I know - and I do know because they come to me with that mess, not you - everyone is fine and dandy with their sexualities and genders identities. Which is truly a blessing, because were-teens fucked up double with that kind of drama? Not an easy mix to handle, and quite frankly? Waaay too much for me to deal with, okay? No, they're all set, what needed to be dealt with, was dealt with and they all feel safe in the pack about all of that. I made sure of that. But a show of support - especially from their usually silently supportive alpha - would be nice and - you guessed it - a grand bonding experience."

Sometimes Stiles really reminded Derek of his dad and Laura. The snarkiness and sarcasm wrapped around the most caring inside. Derek made his best to avoid those thoughts as much as possible.

He sighed, making sure to sound as put-upon as possible about it.

"Fine," he groaned. "Do I need to do anything?"

Stiles smiled victoriously which was never a good sign and shook his head, before telling him how good decision he made and how this took less time than he expected so he might as well go pick the dinner for his dad and left.

The red hoodie was wrapped over the back of the chair this time and Derek groaned in despair. He had a test to pass today for God's sake!

\- 

The Pride Parade in Beacon Hills was not a huge one. Derek had once accompanied Laura to the New York Pride and he felt this should have prepared him more than enough for the Beacon County Pride. Still, his stomach was in knots as he was making his way through the crowd, slowly realizing it was a much different experience to go through it all as part of the Pride. With your pack with whom you've never talked about this before.

A bonding experience, indeed. Perhaps he would get lucky and fail to find any of them in the crowd?

"I know I've told you, you don't need rainbow clothes but one could hope for something less depressingly black?" said a voice from next to Derek and he turned to see half naked Stiles looking at him with a smile from where he stood alone, probably just on the lookout for Derek. "Maybe a small sign of solidarity? If not, dare I say it, a tell regarding your own leanings?"

Derek's eyebrows furrowed, annoyance curling into a barely held back growl. 

"So that's why you wanted me here? To figure me out?" His tone is clipped and hates it. He's not that angry, really, but everything is loud and bright and there are people pressing on from every side and he is not comfortable and he would like the pack to know, but he would like to tell them someday later. In his apartment, maybe. Quietly. If any of them even cared aside from Stiles and his insane curiosity... "Did anyone of the others even wanted me here?"

Stiles' eyes widened and he lifted his hands in a calming gesture.

"Woah, okay, calm down," he said quickly and Derek for once tried to do as he was told, knowing well enough that he was overreacting. 

He breathed in and among the mass of smells he could smell Stiles. The same smell that seemed to haunt him everywhere these days. He focused on it in the sea of people surrounding them, walking far too close, bumping into them and talking loudly...

"I admit to some… interest. Mostly because you're deeply, one might even say paranoidly, private person but it still is a bonding experience, okay? Sometimes however, bonding is also telling others about yourself, you know?"

Derek looked at him. Bisexual flag draped around his shoulders like a cape. Glitter shining on his cheeks and naked chest, falling from his short hair. He looked absolutely ridiculous and Derek still wanted to kiss him and hold him close and wrap himself around him which really was the main problem here, wasn't it? 

The crowd was annoying and overwhelming, the idea of coming out to his pack doubly so, but neither one of those was the main reason Derek was so anxious about this. Despite his previous assurances, this was all, once again, about Stiles.

Derek stilled himself and moved the bent collar of his jacket were a small pin with an asexual flag rested.

"Oh!" Stiles said loudly and grinned. "Brilliant! If we manage to catch color-coded pansexual Scott we can have all invisible orientations together!"

Derek snorted, recognizing Stiles' distracting and up-lifting tactics at their best and appreciating them regardless. He took a small breath through his nose to calm down. In for an inch, in for a mile?

"Wouldn't we also need an aromantic for that?" he said meaningfully, his gaze escaping Stiles as the man paused in thought.

"Well, if you fail to represent…" he said slowly, watching Derek carefully.

Derek shook his head.

"Just bi," he said carefully, forcing himself to look Stiles straight in the eyes and hoping Stiles would somehow just pick up on his thoughts like he usually did.

Stiles nodded slowly and his grin brightened. He put his arm around Derek, carefully draping the flag around him a bit as well. He had to keep holding on Derek's shoulder so it wouldn't fall but neither one of them seemed to mind.

"Ok?" Stiles added, a bit too quietly for the crowd, but with his mouth so close Derek heard him well enough and nodded.

His throat was too dry and he was hyper-focusing on every bit of pressure of Stiles' arm touching him, Stiles' smell enveloping him, stronger than ever. 

"Ok."

Stiles grinned happily at Derek. 

"Ok, so onto finding Scott and Lydia!" he proclaimed loudly, moving into the crowd.

"Lydia?" Derek questioned.

"Demiromantic. I guess it's the best we can do at such short notice."

Derek laughed out loud, relief bright and bubbly inside him. Stiles stumbled as he stared at Derek, mesmerized, his arm strong and warm, tightening to keep his balance. Derek's arm slipped around him to help him and just stayed around Stiles' waist as he didn't protest, moving even closer actually and Derek for the life of him could not force his smile to fade away. Stiles' quickly stolen, amazed glances were worth all the remarks he was going to hear about it later.

Scott's shocked face was just a bonus.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](https://archiveofourown.org/works/lordnochybaty.tumblr.com) or come to [my aspec sideblog](http://acesthetically-pleasing.tumblr.com/) for more aspec goodies :)


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